Govt to distribute 33cr textbooks to students on Jan 1

Staff ReporterEducation Minister Nurul Islam Nahid on Monday said that the government of Bangladesh is committed to reach nearly 33 crore school textbooks to some 4.45 crore students in the country on the first day of 2015 calendar year.“The textbooks were distributed among school students on January 1 each year for the last six years. We’ll continue this,” he told the UNESCO Conference on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Nagoya, Japan, said an Education Ministry press release.The Conference was inaugurated by Crown Prince of Japan Narohito while Crown Princess of Morocco Lalla Hasnaa delivered the keynote speech.The opening session was also addressed by Minister for Education, Sports, Culture, Science and Technology of Japan Hakubun Shimomura, Governor of Aichi Prefecture of Japan Hideaki Ohmura, Oman’s Minister of Education Madiha Ahmed Al Shaibani and UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova.In his statement at the conference, Nahid recalled the commitment of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to transform Bangladesh into a middle-income country through implementing her vision 2021.He highlighted various achievements of Bangladesh in the education sector and in achieving many of the MDGs related to the sector.The Education Minister also mentioned some of the successful programs and measures taken by Bangladesh government like scholarship for girl students and distribution of free textbooks to 44 million students.Nahid is leading a 5-member Bangladesh delegation to Japan to attend the UNESCO Conference on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in the city of Nagoya.More than one thousand representatives from UN member States, NGOs, voluntary organizations, and experts from different countries are attending the three-day Conference.Five ministers from five different regions spoke at the opening session of the Conference organized jointly by UNESCO and the Government of Japan.Bangladesh Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid delivered the speech on behalf of Asia.The three-day Conference will witness many roundtables and side events as well as interactive sessions for stakeholders working in education and environment sector.The Conference is expected to adopt “Aichi-Nagoya Declaration on Education for Sustainable Development” on November 12, 2015.